Baseball beefs up steroid testing

November 16, 2005|By From news services.

Major-leaguers will face tougher penalties for steroid use and testing for amphetamines next season under an agreement between owners and players reached Tuesday after months of negotiations and pressure from Congress.

"I don't regard this as an interim step, I regard this as the completion of a long process," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said.

After winning the NL MVP award Tuesday, the St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols said he supported the tougher punishments. "If you get caught the third time, you definitely need to be thrown out of baseball," Pujols said.

Here's a look at the new drug-testing agreement between players and owners.

Steroid penalties

First positive: 50-game suspension, up from 10 days.

Second positive: 100-game suspension, up from 30 days.

Third positive: Lifetime ban, with player having right to apply for reinstatement after two years. Previously, the earliest a player could be suspended for life was for a fifth positive test.

Independent administrator

A person not connected to management or the union will schedule and supervise the tests.

A player will be tested during Spring Training physicals and at least once during the regular season, with additional random testing. Under the previous agreement, each player was tested once from the start of Spring Training through the end of the regular season, with additional random testing.